Recipe: Vegan Sauteed Kale

Two days in a row of Food Network Recipes! Oy! This is what happens when your fridge is overflowing with CSA veggies a few days before you're going out of town for a work trip. You have to find the quickest and easiest ways to cook up every fresh thing you have in your house.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

1. Heat olive oil and vegetable stock in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. 
2. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. 
3. Raise heat to high and add kale. (I had to add mine slowly to prevent my pan from overflowing - it wilts down quickly, though!
4. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. 
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar. Top with sesame seeds and serve.

This recipe was a "win" in my book...but my boyfriend didn't like it because he's not the biggest fan of red wine vinegar. I love me some vinegar so the flavor wasn't too overpowering to me, but you may want to add vinegar sparingly to this recipe. 

Recipe: Vegan Broccoli Salad

If you read my blog with any frequency, you may have noticed that I'm blogging about more and more vegan recipes. And that's no accident. About a month ago, I completed the Blueprint Cleanse. For 5 days, I sustained on nothing but the most delicious tasting fresh juice. I lost some weight and pretty much eliminated all the tummy troubles I'd been having. When I started eating "real" food again, I was more mindful of what I was putting into my mouth. For nearly a week after my cleanse, I was vegan and gluten free, and as of today, I'm still primarily vegan. I say "primarily" because I'm doing my best to avoid dairy products, but if I have an accidental slip up (I had to scrape cheese off of a salad the other day and I'm sure I missed a piece or two), I'm not going to beat myself up. I know that infuriates some vegans, which is why this blog will remain vegetarian focused. I might not be eating cheese but if you want to, go for it. I've always said it's not my place to tell anyone how to eat...unless they try to tell me how to eat. Then it's game on. But enough about me...onto my delicious broccoli salad!

For silly reasons, I generally avoid raisins, but I saw a recipe for broccoli salad the other day and just HAD to try it. It reminded me of a salad I love at a bar near my house and since my Fresh Fork Market bag was supposed to have broccoli (it didn't, though...weep womp), I figured this would be a good way to use it up. I was also looking for good picnic-y recipes, and this seemed to fit the bill.

Vegan broccoli salad

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup vegan mayo (I used Vegenaise)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 head or 2 cups broccoli (approximate)
• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup raisins
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Cut up broccoli head into florets and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together mayo, vinegar, and sugar.
3. Combine broccoli with whisked mayo mixture. 
4. Stir in cashews and raisins.
5. Serve immediately or chill for additional flavor. 

The result? A broccoli salad that tasted just like a regular old broccoli salad made with "real" mayo. I loved it. My boyfriend loved it...and I think anyone who likes traditional broccoli salad would like it. I can't wait to make up another batch for an upcoming party and "wow" people with the awesomeness of this vegan dish!

Recipe: Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil

My cooking streak continues thanks to attempting to eat better/cleaner and maintain a mainly vegan diet. I've found a bunch of neat recipes that have turned out really well, and I'll be sharing them in the coming weeks. I've tried some clunkers, too, but...I'll spare you from those recipes. I've been on a spaghetti squash kick lately, and when I saw an interesting looking picture recipe come across my facebook feed, I decided I just had to try and make it. So here goes...spaghetti squash stuffed with tomatoes and basil. 

Ingredients:

• 1 large spaghetti squash

• 2 tbsp. olive oil (preferably garlic olive oil)

• 1 large Roma tomato, finely chopped OR as many grape tomatoes, halved, as you can handle

• 2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil (or more - I really like a lot of basil)

• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Using a large knife or a cleaver, slice slits in the spaghetti squash lengthwise down the middle. 
3. Place the squash on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, check to see if the squash is soft. If it's still hard, cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut in half. 
4.  Use a spoon to remove the seeds and center strings. 
5. Scrape and fluff the stringy squash with a fork. Place "spaghetti" in a large bowl. Mix in olive oil, tomatoes, basil, and garlic powder. 
6. Re-stuff squash shells with "spaghetti" mixture. Top with cheese. (optional)
7. Turn the oven up to broil. Place squash in the broiler for 3-4 minutes, until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving the squash.

This was a tag team cooking effort. My boyfriend and I made this together. He picked some fresh basil from the garden and I cooked and assembled the stuffed squash. I didn't use as much oil as I should have (trying to be healthy...boo) and my squash definitely could have used some more. I also forgot to add the garlic salt. Whoops. But I definitely liked the way this turned out. It was a light and healthy - yet filling - dinner that didn't take too much time to prepare.

Recipe:Sauteed Swiss Chard

It was quite the bummer a few weeks ago when I got ready to make collard greens and realized that I had Swiss chard instead. (oops - the trials and tribulations of CSA cooking) I make a terrible vegetarian because I don't know my greens from a hole in the ground.

I needed to use up the Swiss card, though, so I scoured the interwebs for a quick and easy recipe and found a recipe for Sauteed Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese on Allrecipes.com With a couple tweaks. I've been eating mainly vegan for a month now (progress, not perfection) so I made the recipe without cheese first, and then added some to my boyfriend's half. I also cut down on the oil and butter. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegan margarine
• vegetable stock
• minced garlic - as little or as much as you like (but at least one tablespoon)
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and center ribs cut out and chopped together, leaves coarsely chopped separately
• 1/2 cup vermouth or dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (I really need to buy myself some vegan Parm - STAT)
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Melt vegan margarine or heat oil in a large skillet (or grill pan because all of my other pans were in use) over medium-high heat.
2. Stir in the garlic and onions and saute until soft. Add vegetable stock if/when oil/margarine is absorbed and you need more liquid. 
3. Add the chard stems and white wine or vermouth
4. Simmer until the stems begin to soften. (~5 minutes)
5. Add chard leaves and cook until wilted.
6. Stir in the lemon juice (and cheese if you plan on using some). Season with salt to taste.

The verdict - I like collard greens better than Swiss chard. Maybe I was just disappointed because I like collard greens so much and had wanted to have them for dinner. Or maybe they would have been better with some vegan Parm. My boyfriend liked them. He said the Swiss chard tasted like spinach. I don't really like spinach by itself (unless it's in a salad) so maybe that's why I wasn't the biggest fan of this side dish? But I'm not giving up...I really might try this recipe out again once I get some vegan cheese...

Recipe: Quick and Easy Zucchini Planks

I'm too old and lame to use Pinterest, but I do appreciate it when people share recipes on facebook via photos. Makes no sense, I know...but maybe it's because I use facebook all the time and I'm just too lazy to log into one more social media something to look at pictures. Besides Instagram!

A person who I barely know likes to post a lot of photo recipes on facebook, and I saw a seemingly simple one the other night for fancy looking zucchini planks. These zucchini planks turned out so well, I forgot to take an "after/cooked" picture.

Ingredients:

• zucchini 
• olive oil
• garlic powder
• sliced tomatoes (any size/type will do)
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice zucchini in half. Cut off the rounded bottoms so the zucchini can sit flat on a cookie sheet. (it's a good idea to put foil on the cookie sheet first)
3. Brush the zucchini planks with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder and garlic salt.
4. Put tomatoes on top of zucchini planks. Sprinkle with cheese. (optional)
5. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until zucchini is thoroughly cooked - but not soft.
6. Serve and enjoy!

I really, really enjoyed this fancy looking zucchini. Not just because I didn't have to make it and my boyfriend did. It was quick, easy, and delicious! (and low calorie even if you use cheese - I opted for vegan zucchini goodness) I have a feeling I'm about to be up to my ears in zucchini, and I think we'll be making this a lot!

Fresh Fork Market - Week 3 - Radishes, Cilantro, Zucchini, and More

Another exciting week with fresh grub from Fresh Fork Market! In this week's bag I got radishes, more collard greens, zucchini, Swiss chard, lettuce, cilantro, strawberries, corn chips, cabbage, sharp cheddar, beets, peas, more greens, and some spinach. I'm not a big fan of peas and since I was out of town on my designated pickup day (and the next day, and the next day...) my lovely mother picked up by bag-o-veggies for me and took them home with her.

My first opportunity to cook was Sunday night, and I used up some random things in my freezer and fridge to make a taco salad with corn, imitation Chipotle rice with lime juice and cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, super delicious guacamole my boyfriend made (we ate it with the corn chips from Fresh Fork), Blaze Gourmet mild salsa (purchased at the Fresh Fork Market truck), and Upton Naturals chorizo seitan. This was my first attempt at making a taco salad and I think it ended up being really good! The texture of the chorizo wasn't quite what I was expecting (I normally use another brand of meatless crumbles) but it was pretty good. My open minded but meat eating boyfriend liked it so much that he only ate half of his so he could take the rest to work the next day.

Vegan taco salad

I still had some kohlrabi left over from last week so I skinned it, chopped it into small cubes, tossed it with some olive oil, garlic, and garlic salt and roasted it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 40 minutes. If you have a stove that isn't from the 1970's, it might cook a little faster.

I decided to make the radish recipe Fresh Fork Market provided this week for Ruby Radishes. I followed the recipe to the letter except for the part about butter. I used some Earth Balance instead. (too much, actually...I'd cut down on the "butter" next time around) I also sliced up the radishes since I only had one bunch of them.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Earth Balance
• 3 bunches red radishes
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh dill
• salt/pepper to taste

Method:

1. Clean radishes and slice into coin sized circles.
2. Melt the "butter" in a skillet over medium heat.
3. Add radishes and toss to coat with "butter"
4. Cover the pan and cook for about 4 minutes or until radishes become soft.
5. Add sugar and vinegar and toss for 1 minute. Sprinkle with dill and season with salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Serve immediately.

Ruby Radishes

I thought this side dish turned out pretty well. Minus using too much butter, obviously. I think I could have used more dill, too. I should have, actually, since the dill in my garden is growing out of control.

So...another successful week with fresh fork veggies. Tonight I'm going to cook up some zucchini, use up the rest of my lettuce, and try and figure out what to do with my beets. Do you have any favorite beet recipes?

Fresh Fork Market - Week 2 - Vegan Collard Greens, Garlic Scape Pasta, and More

So last week I told you allllll about my first week of Fresh Fork Market. My boyfriend and I had a lot of fun cooking through our bag of goodies. This week was more of the same and we got broccoli, mustard greens, strawberries, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, Ohio City linguine, and rolled oats. (allegedly we were supposed to get lettuce - more on that later)

Last week I was halfway through a juice cleanse when it was my pickup day, and I was a little bummed that I wouldn't be able to eat any of my bounty right away. But everything held up pretty well in my fridge until I was able to whip up a green feast on Sunday night. (except the strawberries - they got icky pretty fast)

For our Sunday night dinner I made linguine with garlic olive oil, garlic, sauteed scapes, and broccoli, collard greens, and a big old salad with grape tomatoes, avocado, and mushrooms.

Garlic scapes, broccoli, and garlic tossed with Ohio City linguine

Big salad - made with mustard greens - whoops!

Since I'm still coming down off of my juice cleanse, I couldn't eat the pasta. But my boyfriend said it was good. I did have the salad. If you can call it a salad. I'm a bad vegetarian and don't know my greens all that well, so when I was cleaning what I thought was lettuce for my salad...it was actually mustard greens. FAIL. We were able to tall right away that the greenery masquerading as lettuce wasn't really lettuce because it was more chewy and it tasted like mustard. This wouldn't be my first choice for greens to use in a salad, but it did give it an interesting zing. 

Vegan collard greens

I did get to try out the collard greens. Like I said, I'm a bad vegetarian and I don't know what to do with greens so I googled a recipe for vegan collard greens. I'd honestly never had them so I didn't know what to expect. But I think they turned out pretty well. To me, they tasted like stuffed cabbage (which I love) and my boyfriend thought they tasted like the inside of a stuffed pepper. I was a bigger fan of them than he was, but I do plan on trying to make these again. If you try out this recipe, be forewarned that your house will smell like cabbage for awhile. Reminds me of walking through an apartment building or a nursing home.

Vegan Collard Greens (as adapted from Easy Vegetarian Collard Greens)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs collard greens
• 4 -5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika (I had to hunt for this at Whole Foods - note that sweet paprika is NOT the same as the paprika you probably have lurking in your cupboard)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Method:

1. Wash the greens well, submerging in a sink full of cold water to remove any dirt and grit. 

2. Drain greens well. 

3. Cut off the stems right where the leaf starts. Stack about 5-8 leaves on top of each other, then roll lengthwise. 4. Cut rolled up leaves into 1" slices widthwise. Repeat until all the greens are cut into strips and then put in a large pot.

5. Add all other ingredients. 

6. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to a simmer. 

7. Simmer for at least 45 minutes or until greens are extremely tender. Serve hot, using a slotted spoon to drain the liquid from the greens.

Some notes on this recipe...I cooked the greens for over an hour and they were still kind of tough. The rest of my food was ready or I might have waited longer to eat them. The apple cider vinegar smell was overpowering at first but you couldn't really taste it. Also, it seemed like I was using a heck of a lot of onion, but you couldn't taste them all that much, honestly. 

Do you have a favorite way to use collard greens? Share your suggestions in the comments, because I know I'm going to be getting a lot more of them from my CSA this summer!

Recipe: Vegan Hoppin John

Hello, 2012.  I've been waiting for you.

I was sick on New Year's Day - due to a cold and not overdrinking - so I had to skip my semi-annual tradition of having dinner with my mother.  We'd planned on making pierogis from scratch, so I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to see her.  I did manage to drag myself out of the house long enough to run 1 mile (and complete my 45 day running streak - yay!) and to go to Whole Foods to stock up on a few essentials.  And the ingredients for Vegan Hoppin John. 

Not familiar with Hoppin John?  I wasn't either until I Googled it a couple years ago.  It's a southern dish that's supposed to bring luck in the coming year.  It's made with black eyed peas which are supposed to represent pennies, which we all know, are supposed to bring good luck.  I'd never actually cooked black eyed peas before or eaten Hoppin John, so all I could do was hope that this simple but time consuming recipe would turn out good. 

Blog Swap Recipe Courtesy of Cleveland Food and Brews: Tomato, Basil and Cheese Baked Pasta

Hello, My name is Brad and I write Cleveland Food and Brews. My site is actually made up of two different sites. One is dedicated to all things Food, and the other is all about Craft Beer. I'm writing here because today is the Ohio Blogging Association’s November Cleveland Blog Swap! I wanted to share my passion for food with you, so I decided to share a Sunday Supper with you. This week our Sunday Supper goes vegetarian and features a Food Network recipe from Rachel Ray. We picked this dish because it was simple to make and packed a lot of flavors into one simple dish. I hope you enjoy this recipe and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you choose to make it one day. Cheers!

Editor's Note: To learn more about Cleveland Food and Brews, follow Brad on Twitter or check out his Facebook page  for Cleveland Food and Brews.

 

Recipe: Cilantro Lime Roasted Potatoes

My cooking skills are ok at best, but over time, I've gotten the confidence to experiment in the kitchen.  (and I've also "trained" my boyfriend to be a little less harsh with his criticism) Most recently, I decided that I wanted to try and make something with cilantro, so I threw together what I called cilantro lime roasted potatoes.  (think Chipotle rice...but potatoes) 

Ingredients:

• One bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
• Cubed potatoes - skin on
• Minced garlic - as little or as much as you like
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Lime juice

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and grease a cookie tray, metal cake pan, or casserole dish.
2. Mix potatoes, garlic, and oil together and place on tray/pan/etc. 
3. Add half of cilantro to potato mixture.  Mix thoroughly. 
4. Add a tablespoon or more of lime juice to potato mixture. 
5. As the potatoes are cooking, continue to add lime juice to your liking.  I like limey foods, but for a more subtle flavor, less lime juice is needed. 
6. Cook potatoes for 35-45 minutes until they become soft. Stir every 5-8 minutes. 10 minutes before potatoes are done cooking, add remainder of cilantro and mix thoroughly.  Feel free to add more lime juice, too.
7. Serve and eat!

Overall, I think this experiment came out pretty well - the potatoes were flavorful with a touch of cilantro and lime. I would have liked a stronger cilantro flavor, but as I learned through the power of Google, I should have waited to add the cilantro until closer to the end of the cook time. (I added it all at the beginning - d'oh!) Oh well! Next time!

What's your favorite way to cook with cilantro?

Recipe: Yellow Summer Squash and Tomato Pasta

They call me mellow yellow...

After weeks of eating zucchini, I decided I needed to move on to squash for my experimental cooking.  While wandering through Whole Foods one afternoon, I stumbled across yellow cherry tomatoes, and voila!  My yellow pasta recipe was born! (with the help of a vegetarian cookbook - my recipe is loosely modeled after another recipe I've made before from said cookbook)

 

Ingredients:

- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved - yellow or red will do

- 1 cup dry pasta

- 2 small yellow squashes (or the equivalent) chopped into small, bite sized pieces

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- garlic salt to taste

- finely minced garlic - I like a lot of garlic, but use what you like

- Parmesan cheese (optional)

Serves 2 - 4

Method:

1. Place oil, squash, and garlic in a large skillet  and heat on high.  Add a touch of water to the skillet to help steam the squash. Stir frequently.  Add salt as needed.
2. While squash is steaming/cooking, prepare noodles following directions on the package.  Drain and set aside.
3. When squash is tender/crisp, add cooked noodles and cherry tomatoes to the squash mix.  Stir frequently.  Cook until cherry tomatoes just begin to soften.
4. (optional) Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

I really liked this recipe.  Squash has a really mellow flavor on its own, so it absorbed a lot of the garlic flavor. The mix of garlicy squash with the acidic tomatoes (although less acidic than normal because I used yellow tomatoes) created a great flavor.

Have you tried cooking with yellow tomatoes?  I like them more for their exotic look than their flavor. 

 

Recipe: Fresh From the Garden Salsa

I think I mentioned last week that I have tomatoes from my garden coming out of my ears.  And the tomato bonanza continues this week!  In an attempt to use up the mountain of tomatoes I picked from the garden, my boyfriend and I made up a batch of fresh from the garden salsa.  Well, sort of fresh from the garden.  We got the red and yellow tomatoes from the garden, but our cilantro recently died and our jalapeno peppers weren't quite ready to be picked.  But still...this is a fresh, mainly from the garden, salsa.

Ingredients:

• Red and yellow tomatoes, seeded - as many as you can handle
• Finely chopped garlic - we could scare away an army of vampires with the amount of garlic we like to use, but I know not everyone feels the same way
• Half cup(ish) of chopped cilantro
• 3+ jalapeno peppers seeded and finely chopped (we probably should have used more - this salsa ended up being 9 parts garlic and tomatoes and 1 part spice)
• Finely chopped green pepper - again, use your own judgement on how much pepper you prefer
• 1-2 tablespoons lime juice
• Salt to taste

Method:
Chop everything up, throw it in a bowl, and let it sit for at least an hour to let all of the flavors mix together.  And voila!  Fresh from the garden salsa! 

We were a little nervous about our first attempt at making salsa.  (ok, so we argued over how much salsa to make because we were afraid it might be awful)  But overall, this salsa recipe was a win.  I think we'd cut down on the garlic the next time around and definitely use more (or spicier?) peppers.  And something else that might have made this salsa better?  Margaritas, of course!!

Recipe: Quick and Easy Garden Tomato Pasta

Am I alone in this, or do you have tomatoes coming out of your ears?

This is the first year I've successfully grown a garden (thanks mainly to my boyfriend remembering to water the plants - I've often said that if my cats didn't meow, I might forget to feed them) and I'm so excited to be able to walk outside to pick fresh vegetables and herbs.  We grew different varieties of tomatoes, including a fleshy yellow type.  It's nearly seedless and, to be honest, a little weird looking.  It also has a milder taste than most other tomatoes, but I'm still a fan.  I eat tomatoes the way other people eat apples, and I could eat a bushel of them in one sitting if given the chance.  And I might need to since all of our tomatoes seem to be ripening at once.

Which is why I decided to get creative the other night and make a pasta dish with as many random items as I could find.  I call it "quick and easy garden tomato pasta."  And like many of my other homespun recipes, nothing is exact.  Use your best judgement.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes - as many as you can handle - seeded and chopped into small pieces - no need to get fancy chopping, though, because they boil down
• Finely chopped garlic - again, use your judgement - we love garlic and could eat whole cloves, but not everyone loves garlic as much as we do
• Fresh basil - I used a handful of leaves sliced into ribbons
• 2+ tablespoons of red cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon parsley (I used dried)
• garlic salt - to taste
• 1 packet Stevia in the raw (optional)
• Shredded Parmesan cheese - could be optional - I liked the sauce without it
• 1 cup pasta - any shape
• Red pepper flakes -just a dash - adds a bit of a kick

Method:

1. Prepare pasta following directions on package.  Set aside.

2. Combine olive oil, garlic, basil, and tomatoes in a medium to large sauce pan.  Heat on high.

3. Add salt, wine, Stevia, parsley, and red pepper flakes to tomato mixture and stir frequently.  There will be a lot of liquid that needs to boil down.  Depending on your sauce preference, you can cook the tomato mixture for a short amount of time or until pretty much all of the liquid is gone.  I like my sauce to be a little chunkier and saucier, so I boil almost all of the liquid off.

4. Add cooked noodles and stir into sauce until all noodles are coated.

5. Add a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and stir into the mix until melted.

6. Serve and enjoy!  You can also top with another sprinkling of cheese if that's your fancy.

Serves 2-4.

My boyfriend generally hates tomatoes but really liked this pasta, so I consider this recipe to be a "win."  It's really easy to throw together and cook on a weeknight.  It's pretty low calorie but filling, too. 

How are you using up the tomatoes from your garden? Do you have any favorite tomato based recipes?

Recipe: Spicy Sesame Zucchini Pasta

Hello.  I'm back from a long blogging hiatus with a recipe I just can't seem to get enough of - spicy sesame zucchini pasta.  It's so good that I eat it before I have a chance to take a picture of it.  (or I got a new iPhone and lost all my old photos...d'oh!)

It's about that time of year where we're about to have zucchini coming out of our ears, so this is a great way to use up tons and tons of zucchini and make a low cal pasta dish for you and yours.

Ingredients:

•  2-3 fresh zucchinis, chopped into small circles or half moon shapes
• chopped fresh garlic (as much or as little as you'd like to use - I normally use 2-4 tablespoons)
• garlic salt (to taste)
• red pepper (cayenne) powder (use as much or as little as you'd like - but at least 1/2 - 1 teaspoon)
• shredded Parmesan cheese (at least 1/4 cup - use more if you like)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 cup pasta (dry)
• sesame seeds (optional)

 Method:

1.  Prepare pasta following directions on box. Set aside.
2. Place chopped zucchini, sesame oil, garlic, red pepper, and garlic salt into pan. Add a little bit of water to the bottom of the pan to help steam the zucchini.
3. Stir ingredients together and turn heat to "high." Cook zucchini until they begin to soften, stirring frequently. (most of the liquid/oil mixture should be evaporated)
4. Reduce heat to low. Add cooked pasta to pan and stir to combine with zucchini. Add Parmesan cheese to pasta/zucchini mixture (use vegan cheese if you like!) and stir until cheese has melted. Sprinkle sesame seeds over pasta.
5. Place in a large bowl and serve! Optional - Before serving, sprinkle additional cheese on top of pasta.

This is a quick, easy, and low calorie recipe. Nothing needs to be too exact, although I think one cup of dry pasta is more than enough for 2-4 people.  You want to have way more zucchini than noodles - that's what keeps it low cal.  If you're a wimp about spicy food like I am, try to not be too heavy handed with the pepper.  I made a batch recently which made my eyes and nose burn...but it was so good I kept eating it anyway.

What's your favorite way to keep zucchini from coming out of your ears?

Recipe: Vegan "Sour Cream" Coffee Cake

As a general rule, I'm not much of a "cake" person.  Give me ice cream, brownies, pie...heck, even a cupcake, but I will never go out of my way to eat cake.  But one day, while surfing through my favorite vegan recipe site - VegWeb - I discovered what looked like a simple and delicious vegan sour cream coffee cake I could make for a bake sale at work.  (I love having to bake things for work functions.  You get instant feedback and if you don't particularly like what you've made, there are bound to be scavengers around who will eat it.)

I was a little nervous to make this coffee cake because 1. it's vegan and some vegan desserts are not so great, as I've learned from my adventures in cooking/baking and 2. I'd never made a cake from scratch before.  Honestly, as a kid, I may not have even realized that cakes could be made from scratch.  But I gave it a whirl and was very happy with the results.  

Ingredients:

Coffee Cake:

•     1/2 cup vegan butter
•     1 cup sugar
•     2 egg substitutes (1/4 cup soy yogurt = 1 egg)
•     1 cup vegan sour cream (no sour cream?  use more yogurt!)
•     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•     2 cups all-purpose flour
•     1 teaspoon baking powder
•     1 teaspoon baking soda
•     1/4 teaspoon salt

    Topping/Filling:

•     1/4 cup sugar
•     1/3 cup packed brown sugar
•     2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•     1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, and grease 9x13" pan. In a mixing bowl, cream vegan butter and sugar. Add egg substitutes, sour cream and vanilla; mix well.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and beat until combined.

3. Pour half the batter into prepared pan. Combine topping ingredients, and sprinkle half of topping over batter.

4. Add remaining batter and topping. Bake for 40 minutes or until done.

Voila!  Easy peasy, cake baking!  

Some things to note:

• The batter is more like bread dough than a traditional cake mix.  Don't panic!  I thought I'd ruined the coffee cake, but it ended up being a-ok in the end.  (It wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever seen, but...)
• Walnuts are hella expensive at most grocery stores right now.  (They were $10 a bag at one store I went to) Places like Whole Foods have them at a "normal" price.
• This cake was extremely well received by everyone I work with.  I've never gotten so many requests for a recipe before.  It makes a ton of cake and will be enjoyed by vegans and non vegans alike.

For more helpful tips, view the original recipe over at VegWeb.

Recipe: Spicy Vegan Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce

It has now been a week since I had a functional kitchen sink, but I've decided I can't let that keep me from cooking.  Or eating...skipping dinner is kind of a drag and you can only eat frozen meals so many days in a row.  So...I decided to whip out my Magic Bullet Blender (it's more awesome than you might think!  and easier to drag out than my real blender!) and whip up a homemade pasta sauce. 

I've been dying to make a vegan cream sauce that doesn't taste vegan (not saying all vegan food is bad, but some things definitely don't resemble their dairy filled counterparts).  I attempted to make a cream sauce with tofu and nutritional yeast a few weeks back, and I'm not sure I've ever put something so foul tasting in my mouth.  After some extensive google-ing and consulting with Chef Jakub Mejstrik, I decided that using a vegan cashew cream was the way to go.  (plus, everything at Akron's amazing vegan restaurant - Vegiterranean - is made with it, and they clearly know more about vegan cooking than I do.

Not familiar with cashew cream?  It's probably the easiest thing I've ever made.  All you do is buy raw cashews at the store (not the Mr. Peanut processed kind!), soak them in water for a couple hours, and then pop them in a blender with a little bit of water.  Then, through the magic of science, or something like that, you have an amazing vegan cream!  Important note - you might need more water than you think to whip up a batch of vegan cream - most recipes say one cup cashews to one cup water, but you might need more or less - use your best judgement here.  You want the cream sauce to be, well, creamy...not a thick cashew-y paste.  And note that one cup of water + one cup of water will yield close to 2 cups cashew cream.  Unless you need that much for a recipe, feel free to scale down the amounts to something that will meet your needs.

So this was step one in my spicy vegan vodka tomato cream sauce creation process.  The rest is as follows:

Ingredients: (serves 2)

- 2 servings noodles

- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

- fresh garlic - finely diced (use as much or as little as you like!  but don't be stingy with it)

- 14 ounce can whole tomatoes

- 1/4 cup cashew cream

- 1 tablespoon vodka

- 1 teaspoon parsley

Method:

1. Boil water and prepare noodles following directions on package. 
2. While noodles are boiling, put oil, garlic, and red pepper into a small to medium saucepan with the temperature at medium/medium-high.  Allow to simmer until garlic begins to soften.
3. While the noodles are boiling and the garlic/oil/pepper mixture is boiling, use a small blender (Magic Bullet, ahem) or a food processor to grind tomatoes into a paste. 
4. Add tomato mixture, cashew cream, parsley, and vodka to the oil/pepper/garlic mixture and bring to a boil.  Stir frequently to prevent the sauce from burning.  Once sauce begins to thicken, it is "done."
5. Add cooked noodles to sauce mixture and stir for a minute or so until all noodles are covered in creamy, saucy goodness.

The result:

A sauce that rivaled any tomato cream sauce I've had in a non-vegan restaurant.  Really!  It was pretty amazing how similar the taste and texture was!  I even fed this to a non veg and he really liked it.  (maybe more than I did?  I think I skimped on the garlic) The red pepper gave it a subtle kick, but I think I could turn that flavor up a notch next time.

Now that I've discovered cashew cream, I can't wait to experiment with it some more!  (lookout, my lactose intolerant friends!  I'll have lots of food for you to try!) I've never really liked using heavy cream in recipes (for lots of different reasons) and I never seem to have it on hand when I need it.  Now that I know I can just whip up a batch of cashew cream quickly and easily, I might never use dairy cream again!   

Anyone else out there in internet land know of any other great recipes using cashew cream?

Recipe: Sesame Soy Broccolini

Do you ever have days where you get home from work, exhausted, and can barely muster up the strength to pop a meal in the microwave?  Unfortunately, that happens to me quite often.  And as much as I'd love to live on frozen meals, I know that I shouldn't, so I'm constantly on the hunt for quick and easy recipes.  Sesame soy broccolini is one of those recipes. 

Never had broccolini?  In my mind, broccolini is like a cross between asparagus and broccoli.  It doesn't taste like asparagus, though - it's just very "stemy." 

Ingredients:

• Broccolini (I buy it in shrink wrapped packages at Whole Foods)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• Garlic - as much as you can handle
• 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

 

Method:

1. Trim broccolini - similar to how you'd trip asparagus. Cut of the ends and cut each step into manageable/eatable pieces
2. Finely mince garlic.
3. Put broccolini, garlic, oil, and soy sauce into a skillet. Cook on high or medium high heat until slightly wilted. (not too wilted! they cook pretty quickly!)
4. Enjoy!

 

 

Start to finish, you can whip up a batch of broccolini in less than 15 minutes.  It's a quick and tasty addition to almost any meal.

 

What are your favorite quick and easy recipes?

Recipe: Easy as pie applesauce

Have you ever made something from scratch and wondered why you've never made it from scratch before?  That was my experience with homemade applesauce.  Packed with flavor and lacking the preservatives that are sometimes found in store bought applesauce, I don't think I can ever eat the stuff in a jar ever again.

Ingredients:

Apples - pick your favorite kind! 

Cinnamon

Agave

Water

Method:

1. Peel and core as many apples as you can handle.  Apples boil down quite a bit, so the more you put in on the front end, the more delicious applesauce you'll end up with!

2. Chop the apples into small-ish pieces and put in a large pot/saucepan.  Cover with water.

3. Bring apples and water to a boil.  Add cinnamon to your liking.  (I can never have too much cinnamon)

4. Continue to boil apples until they are very soft and the majority of the water has burned off.  Add more cinnamon if necessary.  (you might want to give the apple mixture a taste first...)

5. Once apples are soft and the water has boiled off, use a potato masher to get a chunky consistency with the apples.  (if you like a smoother texture, get out your blender!)

6. (optional) Add a half tablespoon or tablespoon of agave.  This is probably only necessary if you're like me and like super sugary applesauce. 

The finished product:

I'm not sure why I always thought it would be so difficult to make applesauce from scratch.  It's really a fairly quick and easy process. 

Have you ever conquered a recipe that you thought would be difficult but ended up being easy as pie?  Or in this case...applesauce!

Fall Flashbacks - My Favorite Vegan Fall Recipes

Have you ever made a recipe that you that was so fantastic that you just wanted to make it again and again and again?  During last year's Vegan MoFo, I discovered a couple "keeper" recipes that I just can't live without, and I thought I'd share them again this year.  (I mean, if tv shows can have reruns, why can't my blog?)


(in no particular order, although the roasted squash is my absolute fave!)


1. Butternut Squash Pasta Bake - Think vegan macaroni and cheese, if cheese were replaced with squash and lite coconut milk.
2. Vegan Roasted Squash - Always a crowd pleaser!  Has a nice unexpected kick!
3. Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillow Cookies - I'm from Ohio, the land of chocolate and peanut butter.  What's not to like about that combo?
4. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - Maybe the most popular food item I've ever made.  No matter how many batches of these suckers I whip up, they're always gone before I know it.  Great for fall parties.
5. Vegan Pumpkin Pie - Just like mom used to make.  Well...not unless your mom's a vegan, but still pretty darn good.

And a bonus recipe (although not vegan but probably could be veganized with a few tweaks- sorry folks) - Pumpkin Pie Martini. 

What are your favorite fall recipes?

Recipe: Vegan Apple Crisp

If you read my blog regularly, you know that my knowledge of kitchen utensils is sub par, and up until I made this recipe, I had no idea that there's a difference between an apple brown betty (contains breadcrumbs) and an apple crisp (uses oats and/or flour).  (I do like the term "betty" better than crisp, though, because it reminds me of Ram Jam's "Black Betty.")

I made a vegan apple crisp recipe I found on The Post Punk Kitchen's site (new and improved!  check it out!).  I don't like raisins all that much and was fresh out of arrowroot powder so I used cornstarch, but otherwise, I followed the instructions and ingredients to the letter. 

And it looked a little something like this: 

 

Admittedly, I'm my own worst critic, so I thought this recipe was just ok.  Growing up, my mom never ever EVER used sugar in recipes.  She used honey instead, and I think I'm more accustomed to what apples taste like when they're mixed with honey - not gobs of white sugar.  BUT...I made this for some dinner guests and they gobbled it up, so I have to believe that if you're a fan of cooking apples with sugar, you'd like this recipe.  I think I'd make this vegan apple crisp again, but maybe I'd try to use agave instead.